USC & travel

Woke up to the alarm in the morning after a night of solid sleep in the hotel room. It was overcast outside, but there were already patches where the sun was beginning to burn through. We went to Starbucks in University Village just north of campus for breakfast, it was reasonably crowded. Campus looked a lot more alive today, possibly in part because Wednesdays are tour days.

We arrived at the admissions office 15 minute early and filled out the usual assortment of forms along with several dozen other prospective students and their families. Many people were from California, but there were a few from Oregon and Washington, several from Texas, and one from Alabama. The “Meet USC” program started with the oh-so-familiar admissions presentation in the auditorium of the humanities building. General questions about the university as a whole were answered here, a list of all this is included after this entry.

The second part of the program was a campus tour. We were broken up into smaller groups, maybe 30 people total, and led around campus. Our tour guide was an engineering major and an Ultimate Frisbee aficionado. The campus itself is not large, less than 200 acres, and you can stand in the middle and see the northern and southern borders in the distance. There are several grassy quads, numerous residence halls (mostly for freshmen, the lack of on-campus housing has led at times to the use of the Radisson hotel for emergency housing), plenty of trees, and all the other features of any college campus. Many students drive and bring their cars, since public transportation in Los Angeles may as well be non-existent.

The final part of the program was a meeting with the engineering department. We talked with the engineering school’s director of admissions for an hour along with 6 other students. The program seems perfect, there is an “undeclared engineering” program that allows people to enter the college of engineering without deciding on a specific field. They encourage double majoring and major – minor studies between engineering and unrelated fields, which is perfect for engineering and music. Admissions to the engineering program are competitive; maybe 400 students are accepted each year.

After the engineering visit, we stopped by the commons area for a sandwich for lunch. A visit to the ATM outside turned interesting when the receipt came out and promptly fell into a small crack in the molding. Hmm… interesting. We then went through a series of buildings looking for the music department, which has been relocated to a church across the street during construction. The church was a maze of different hallways and stairways, and judging by the giant trap on the 5th floor, home to at least one rat. The music admissions office was staffed by a graduate student who was also a trombone player in the marching band. She was happy to give out information on the music programs, and even mentioned that her sister would be coming into the band the same year I would be.

We returned to the hotel around 1:30, a bit late for check-out, but they didn’t seem to mind too much. We took another shuttle van to the airport for out flight to Oakland. This driver was Hispanic, probably Mexican since it is Southern California. Traffic was rather “Los Angeles” again, but we had plenty of time.

At the airport, my bag full of clothes (not the bag with the CD player and electronics, the bag of clothes) was searched at security. Ahh, well. Ate a quick snack at TCBY and got online at the T-Mobile hotspot. I’ve figured out how to get the laptop online at those now, although the one I was at wasn’t working very well. The flight to Oakland was uneventful yet again, although I got a good view of the USC campus and the X-Games location from the air.

In Oakland, we experienced the same strange looks when we told people we were heading to Stanford. It’s definitely not the closest airport, but the airfare still makes up the difference in shuttle fare. It was another 70 dollars to get from the airport to the Westin Hotel in Palo Alto, across from the Stanford campus. The driver of this shuttle was Islamic, judging by the sticker saying “Allah is the divine provider” and several Arabic-looking items around the dash. He drove fast and wasn’t afraid to back up on the shoulder of the off ramp when he missed the initial turn. Ehhh… scary.

The hotel is very nice, slightly larger room than last time and much farther from the elevator. Mom was having stomach problems, so she was too distracted to notice the AC control that she walked by no less than 4 times. To be honest, I didn’t see it either, but I wasn’t the one looking for it. We went several blocks along the road to the Stanford Shopping Center just off campus where we got her some meds, and then we went to find the ice cream place near Bloomindales that Kyrie recommended. Yummy, good ice cream and good burgers.

The walk back to the hotel was interesting. People kept asking me directions, apparently assuming that I knew anything about the area. I showed them on the map; hope I pointed them in the right direction. The path along the road was poorly lit, but there was just enough light for us to see the skunk crossing the path ahead of us. Mom freaked out, so we crossed the street to find yet another skunk. This time I just kept walking, it was off the side of the path in the bushes. She was pretty happy when we came to the lit path again and maybe just a bit jumpy. I grabbed her and said “skunk” and she got really scared, then the sprinklers came on nearby and she jumped again. Now we’re back in the hotel, I think she’ll sleep well tonight. I probably will too, it’s been a busy day and there are two more ahead.